NBA commish has ‘stern’ rebuke for Van Gundy

NBA commissioner David Stern has duly noted some of the recent comments by Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy, who called him a “dictator” in his autocratic ruling of the league.

The Orlando Sentinel reported that Van Gundy has been angry about the technical fouls piling up for Orlando center Dwight Howard despite drawing more fouls than any other NBA player. Howard missed the Magic’s Monday night loss against Portland because he has received 16 technicals this season — necessitating a one-game suspension.

Citing a statistic he credited to the Elias Sports Bureau and that his brother, ABC-TV analyst Jeff Van Gundy used on the air over the weekend, Van Gundy said Howard has been fouled 593 times this season. None of the opponents who committed those infractions has received a flagrant foul on any of those plays.

“You guys can estimate how many of those were hard hits and how many of those were above the shoulders,” Van Gundy said to reporters after the Magic completed a recent workout.

“And for him to retaliate as few times as he has? By the way, not one of those 593 hits, with so many of those being above the shoulders and hard, not one has been deemed a flagrant foul. Not one. Five hundred and ninety-three. Amazing restraint for those guys to hit him that hard and not go over the line and get a flagrant foul. Getting no protection from the referees, he’s only retaliated from that a handful of times.”

“This is the system David Stern and his minions like it,” Van Gundy said. “So that’s the system you have…I certainly can’t have an opinion because David Stern, like a lot or leaders we’ve seen in this world lately, don’t really tolerate other people’s opinion or free speech or anything. So I’m not really allowed to have an opinion. So it’s up to him.

“I would just render a guess that we’re not going to be hearing from him for the rest of the season…

“Oh, I have whatever influence the (league) bylaws and constitution give me, and they’re substantial, but I have a feeling that some modicum of self restraint will cause Stan and the team for which he works to rein in his abhorrent behavior.”

To me, “abhorrent behavior” sound like a code word for something that likely will cost Van Gundy and the Magic lots and lots of money in fines to the league office.